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Dordt College News

Dordt Biotechnology Program awarded Genomics Education grant

LI-COR® Biosciences has announced an award of $60,540 to Dordt College’s Biotechnology Program, to be used toward the purchase of a Sequencing, Microsatellite, and AFLP Package. The Li-Cor® Genomics Education Enhanced Matching Funds Program supports hands-on undergraduate education in genomics, providing 60 percent of the funding to qualified institutions for biotechnology equipment and programs that provide students experience in the following research:

“Students who have the hands-on experience using the LI-COR® system have a distinct advantage when they seek jobs and admission to post-graduate programs,” says Jackie Potts, LI-COR® GEMF coordinator. “GEMF-partner schools tell us that integrating the analyzer into their curriculum allows students to be knowledge producers not just knowledge consumers.” These DNA analysis systems are used in academic labs worldwide for a variety of research applications.

Dordt’s biotechnology program is interdisciplinary, working cooperatively between several majors to allow students to pursue emphases in four distinct areas: agriculture biotechnology; biology/molecular biology and biotechnology; business biotechnology; and computer science: bioinformatics. An engineering: biomedical emphasis option is also offered by Dordt’s engineering department. Internships at a biotechnology firm or a molecular biology laboratory are also available to a limited number of students.

For more information about Dordt’s biotechnology program and the new opportunities being offered in genomics education, contact Dr. Tony Jelsma, director and professor in the biotechnology program.